Hyderabad: Stir against Citizenship Act erupts

Hyderabad: Friday saw the biggest protests by Muslims in the history of Telangana State. The protesters at several places expressed their anger at the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which excludes only Muslim immigrants from settling in the country and is blatantly religious in intent. A silent demonstration was organised in front of mosques against the CAA and the proposed nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC), which has disenfranchised lakhs of people, mainly Muslims, in Assam where it was tried out.

Hundreds of people belonging to various organisations and outfits participated in the rally wearing black badges and strips, organised by the Students Islamic Organisation at Masjid-e-Azizia in Mehdipatnam. Traffic was disturbed for an hour on busy roads.

Soon after prayers hundreds of students gathered outside the Masjid-e-Azizia, Mehdipatnam crossroads with placards and banners and walked to Rythu Bazaar. People from all walks of life, cutting across communal and party lines, participated.

Protesters raised slogans such as “Modi Murdabad”, “Modi ki Tanashai nahin chalegi nahin chalegi”, “Amit Shah Murdabad” and “We reject CAA” etc.

The protesters held placards that read “NRC & CAB are tools to advance Hindutva Agenda and beginning to declare India as the Nation State of Hindus”, “NRC & CAA are the tools to divert the nation’s attention from economy, jobs & development to petty, ill-conceived and communal issues”, “India is home to all religions” and “The CAA selectively grants citizenship to illegal immigrants belongs to certain religions only” etc. Later they staged a sit-in at the Mehdipatnam crossroads for more than half an hour.

Speaking on the occasion, Talha Faiyazuddin, state president, TS-SIO, called the legislation unconstitutional and illegal. He said that the government doesn’t have any sympathy with religiously persecuted immigrants, but the only thing this government intends is to advance its communal agenda. Bringing in legislation that discriminates against a particular community on the basis of religion is against the spirit of the constitution and violates Article 14 of the constitution, he said. By bringing this legislation the government has shown its true colours of fascist Hindutva and is openly pursuing policies to establish a Hindu Rashtra. There were also slogans against a proposed nationwide NRC. Pointing to the fact that the onus of proving who is not a citizen lies on the government, the protesters urged the government and all the political parties to revoke CAA and stop instilling fear in, and intimidating, the common man in the name of CAA and NRC.

Some protesters said CAA is a communal and divisive bill that only invites refugees from certain religions and countries. While it is totally against Muslims, it also does not consider the Sri Lankan Tamil refugees and the Tibetan refugees, most of whom are non-Muslims.